


eternal gull enmity

by havisham



Category: The Lighthouse (2019)
Genre: Animal Transformation, Gen, Madness, Post-Canon, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-25 21:59:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21363322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: Like theRime of the Ancient Mariner, but smaller and dirtier and also not like that at all: after his death, Ephraim Winslow is turned into a enemy gull. He deals with it the best way he knows how: by antagonizing the doomed humans who followed behind him.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	eternal gull enmity

**Author's Note:**

> Why did I write this instead of sexy tentacle fic? I don't know. But I think this probably closer to canon happenings than most of my fics, so idk. Ephraim's afterlife continues to be trash, sorry about it.

He was dead and yet he lived on. He watched the other birds peck at his dead body and soon he himself joined in, fighting disappointment that his eyes had been burned away. It was the best part, he knew. 

*

They sent a couple this time, a man and wife, perhaps thinking the presence of a woman would stave off the madness of the island a little while longer. She was younger than he was, her eyes lingered on the dark stains on the rock where Ephraim’s body had been scraped off, to be burned. 

She did not know about the fates of the last two lighthouse-keepers. Nor did her husband, but he did not ask the questions that she did. All unanswerable, of course. 

All that mattered was that the light kept burning. 

*

The woman’s hair was long and dark. It loosened in the wind sometimes, when Ephraim snatched her hat away. She cried out in frustration, but she did not curse him. He was only a mindless creature, after all. 

*

The man was captured by the light as easily as Wake had been. He polished the lens. He worshipped the God of the Lighthouse. He shooed the spying birds away from the ledge. He knew what they watched for. He knew which one Ephraim was -- he was the only gull without two eyes, of course. The only gull who had seen the light. 

The man and Ephraim were enemies, but it didn’t matter.

The man wouldn’t win.

*

This time, the madness crept in slower, worked in steadier into the fabric of the couple’s lives. They were, essentially, boring people. The madness had to work hard on them. It was Christmas that did it, or perhaps it was the ghost of their dead child. 

Ephraim couldn’t tell. The more time passed, the less human he was, the less he noticed or cared how the Lighthouse worked its will on everyone and everything on the island and the sea surrounding it. It only mattered that it did. And it did. 

When the woman finally killed her husband and climb the twisted stairs with bloodstained feet, Ephraim was with her, his feathers tangled with her long, dark hair. They went to the very top of the Lighthouse together and opened up the light and flew, flew and flew. 

The air was filled with gulls. As it should be. 

As it always would be, always and forever.

**Author's Note:**

> \- I've always really disliked gulls??????
> 
> \- Now we can discuss the ethics of sea bird murder (personally, I think: albatross = bad, seagull = fine) all the livelong day, but let me just quote my favorite part of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, since you're here and so am I:
> 
> _The many men, so beautiful!_   
_And they all dead did lie:_   
_And a thousand thousand slimy things_   
_Lived on; and so did I._
> 
> **fellas ...**


End file.
